It is for all of these reasons (clarity, “falseness” gotchas) that I strongly prefer to see the plain-and-simple use of if or unless ... and, explicit relational operators. If you are intending to make a decision or a branch here ... say that. If you intend to test for a certain thing, say what you are intending to test for. (And throw an exception if when “none of the above” actually happens.)
The computer will never mis-read your source code: it will parse it, one way or another, and then it will do what it thinks you said. But, people mis-read source code all the time, and that’s where a lot of head-banging (and, costly) project delays come from.